Hey all! I play in a very loud rock band with a heavy handed drummer and many different venues. I can't seem to get my mic feedback under control. I had a Shure sm58 and switched to an Audix om5 thinking that would help but to no avail. I use an EV zlx 12 p as a monitor directly in front of me. I've tried many angles but nothing seems to solve it. We do our own setup and mic so I'm sure we are part or most of the problem 
Love to hear any suggestions, I'm also considering buying a different mic thinking the Audix may not have been a great choice. Any ideas or thoughts will be greatly appreciated. It'd gotten to the point Im straining my voice and still not hearing myself to get the feedback to stop in alot of shows. Thanks!
Tim
Vocal mic help
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place a equalizer before your monitor and dial out the problem frequencies
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place a equalizer before your monitor and dial out the problem frequencies
This! I can't imagine the mic is the culprit. I don't know the Audix but the SM58 definitely isn't prone to feedback. -
A question: how do you hold the mic?
If you tend to have your hand over the ball (i.e. cover some part of the rear area of the grill), you're essentially turning it into an omnidirectional mic => instant feedback
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(which is also why some people's first reaction of trying to cover the mic with their hands when it feeds back is not necessarily a good idea :-))
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Aside from the obvious eq'ing of the monitor to lower the problem frequencies, remember that the OM5 is a hypercardioid. Meaning you should not direct the opposite side of the mic directly towards the monitor. If the monitor is directly in front of you, angle the mic parallel to the floor. Or put the monitor slightly to the side.
[Blocked Image: http://www.serif.com/appresources/MPX6/Tutorials/en-us/graphics/basics/microphones_hypercardioid.png]
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My band is very loud. I've never been a fan of the SM58 I know it's industry standard but for me it's just a no no. I have always used Beyerdynamic mics for years I used a TGX-60 bloody fabulous mic very good at giving your voice body and helping it sound bigger than it is. When this broke after many many years I brought the TGX-80 only because I couldn't find a TGX-60 for the life of me. This was very good and both these mics never gave me any feedback issues. We played a gig around 2 years ago and in the break sons idiot knocked my mic stand over and the TGX-80 died.
when I rung buyer up to get it repaired the cost was nearly the same as buying a new mic, only thing was they had stopped making the TGX series so they sold me the new equivalent and for the life of me I can't remember the modal but I'll find out tomorrow. All 3 of these mics have been wonderful no feedback issues and crystal clear on stage. I also run a compressor on my mic as well which helps it cut through the mix and again no feedback issues at all. I would say make sure you are gain staging correctly and sometimes a faulty lead can cause feedback aswell. I can't recommend the beyers highly enough IMO they knock the socks off any SM58 -
Thanks for the advice as always guys, I'm looking into Behringer's Feedback Destroyers, hopefully this will work on auto pilot to fix the problem, that way the bass player and I can just keep on jamming away.
Don't leave it on auto. Once it's found a problem frequency save it and take off auto. If your putting guitar through the monitor as well it will often pick up guitar sustain as feedback and lock that out too!
I've an ultra-curve pro. I only use it as a diagnostic tool to help setup, if needed.
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Feedback-suppression for live vocals to me is a combination of 3 things:
1. A focused (supercardiod) microphone such as a Shure Beta87A
2. Identify microphone-specific trouble-frequencies and suppress them slightly (2 - 6dB) on the channelstrip EQ. Condenser microphones are generally much stronger than dynamics above 4kHz which must be taken into account.
3. Identify and dial out further trouble-frequencies on the monitor outputs.
A mixing console with built-in analyzer (RTA) is a great help.
